Thanks for all the replies, unfortunately I got confused and totally lost by it all.
The PATH needs to be changed for just one programme, the XDS M2 Compiler, the system is KDE with just me as the user.

I tried the following, but the result means nothing to me.
CODE
grep profile ~/.bash*
/home/dave/.bash_profile:# .bash_profile

That is the best solution, much of the continuing discussion was about why other suggestion were less reliable.

It's not that Linux is hostile, just that some programs are inconsiderate in going about things their own way when there is already a perfectly acceptable way of doing things, resulting is too many confusing choices. That's the price of freedom.

"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." (Albert Einstein)